The heroine of the bestselling Outlander, Claire, returns in Drums of Autumn, reunited with her husband Jamie Fraser and facing a new life in the American colonies. As the preceding novel, Voyager, concluded with Jamie Fraser and his wife Claire shipwrecked on the Georgia coastline in 1766 —and happy to be out of Scotland—Drums of Autumn picks up where Voyager left off. Jamie and Claire, as well as Fergus, and Ian, make their way first to Charleston, and then Wilmington, before settling in the North Carolina foothills in hopes of building a homestead. Fergus' wife
Marsali stayed behind on the island of Jamaica expecting the arrival of their first child. At the same time, Brianna Ellen Randall and her suitor, historian Roger Wakefield, remain safely ensconced in the 20th century. Now orphaned by her mother's departure to the past, Brianna struggles to accept her loss and satisfy her curiosity about a father she has never met, only to discover a tragic piece of "history" that threatens her parents' happiness in the past. This discovery sends Brianna back through time on a mission to save her parents that sends Roger after her.